angelic_gabe (angelic_gabe) wrote in shadowlands_ic, @ 2017-05-28 23:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | gabriel allen, leah allen |
Who: Leah and Gabriel
What: Laying down the law
When: May 27th, 1888
Where: Their home
Rating: PG-13
Leah’s arms stretched languidly overhead as she blinked open her eyes for the first time that morning. Another blink as she took in the sunlight streaming in through the open curtains at her bedroom windows and she considered pulling the covers back over her head and returning to her dreams. It was later than she thought if the sun was coming in that brightly, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to move from her bed, sated as she was. Had she left the curtains open last night? She couldn’t remember.
She’d fed very deeply last night, and a satisfied smirk spread across her face at the memories and the comfortably stuffed sensation. Eddie had been quite the enthusiastic lover and she’d taken more than she really should have, the poor boy had barely been able to stumble back to the servants quarters when she’d finished with him. If she’d taken much more he probably would have turned to dust and wouldn’t that have been a bother? Leah made a note to check on him later. She loved horses and riding, so it wouldn’t be unusual for her to pop by the stables.
With a yawn she forced herself to sit up, letting the covers slide off and expose bare skin. She rubbed her eyes lazily and then froze when she realized she wasn’t alone in the room.
“Good morning Papa.” Seeing him sitting there in one of the armchairs by the fireplace waiting on her to wake up was a surprise. He hadn’t done that sort of thing since her first feeding a little over a year ago, and he’d been out overnight on business not expected back until late the next morning. It was still morning, wasn’t it? Leah suddenly wasn’t so sure.
When Gabriel’d arrived back home that morning, Eddie hadn’t been at his station to take the horse and carriage.
He’d taken cursory care of the horse himself, made sure the rest were fed and watered too, and left the carriage in the yard. A brief search found Eddie in his bed, waxen faced, sleeping so deeply that if it wasn’t for the mirror Gabriel held up to his nose and the light (barely there) pulse under his fingers, he would’ve feared the boy’s heart had given out during the night.
The necessity of being his own stableboy after a long trip was an annoyance -- that was why one hired servants, after all -- but he was worried about Leah’s self-control. It’d only been a little over a year, but she’d had enough encounters by now to start to figure out those limits, and he wondered whether it was her holding off as long as she had, deferring until she was twenty due to her schooling obligations, or the lack of variety in her diet, or the fact that her meals these days came solely from servants -- servants she hadn’t yet gained a sense of responsibility for.
It was a fine line they walked -- they moved in refined circles where reputation meant everything, and where what they needed, what they enjoyed, was scandalous at the very least, and, in some cases where Gabriel was concerned, outright criminal. He knew it wasn’t an easy path for either of them -- Leah especially -- but this couldn’t continue as it had been.
“Leah,” he replied, sighing, frustrated, leaning forward in his chair. “I suspect you know what this is about,” he said, frowning.
“No, no I’m not sure I do.” Leah replied, a bit wary as she sat up further in the bed. “If it’s about Eddie we were completely discreet, and he went back to the servants quarters before dawn.” Under his own power, she didn’t bother to add. She’d only been feeding off him since Easter, so it shouldn’t have been long enough for them to need to send him away.
Gabriel’s frown deepened. “And based on the look of him, I’m debating calling a physician, and very nearly would’ve had to make a different sort of call altogether,” he replied, shortly, giving her a frank look. “As it is, we’re going to be lucky if he recovers his strength and accepts the payout without asking any questions. Are you aware you very nearly killed him?” He asked, “because if you aren’t, we’ve got a larger issue on our hands than simply replacing a servant.”
There were several unspoken additions to his last as he looked at her -- after only a few weeks was one, and one of many was another, along with a hefty dose of are you aware just how much it costs us? tossed in for good measure.
A wince was Leah’s reaction to his mild tongue lashing, and she lowered her eyes to avoid his gaze. She knew she’d taken more than she should have, but... “We might have gotten carried away.” She admitted, voice quiet. But it had felt so good she hadn’t been able to stop and he hadn’t complained or made any moves to break it off. Part of that was just the way the feeding worked she knew that intellectually, but in the heat of the moment it could be hard sometimes to remember. Or care.
There had been a succession of young, handsome servants who’d come and gone since she’d succumbed to the urge to feed a little over a year ago, and she knew it wasn’t cheap to send them off with enough funds to start a new life in the colonies. But what was she supposed to do? It wasn’t like she could just go visit a brothel like her father could if he wanted to, or find an attractive man in her social circle. And a husband wouldn’t be enough, even if she found an acceptable one who understood her situation.
“I didn’t think he’d be that bad off, honestly Papa.” Eddie had the constitution of an ox. If he was as bad off as her father said, well, then no wonder she felt so sated!
“You got carried away,” he rejoindered, keeping his tone firm. “It’s your responsibility, Leah, not his. You know you hold your partner’s life in your hands.” He stood abruptly, taking a few steps to the fireplace. “We’ve talked about this before. How important it is to control your own hunger and pursuit of pleasure. How you will always be pulled into greater hunger by the desires of your partner, how regular schedules make it easier to resist.”
He sighed. “You have willpower, Leah -- heaven knows you held off far longer than I did -- but testing those limits, depriving yourself too much before you know what your partners can handle -- it’s dangerous, and if you’re not careful, it’ll lead to trouble.” He pinched his nose. “Do you want to be treated as an adult who can make her own decisions, and be responsible? Because right now, you’re not inspiring much confidence.”
Eyes narrowed as Leah glared at her father. She didn’t appreciate the lecture, or the threat. All right, maybe she’d held out longer than she should have, and maybe that made things more difficult when she did feed than it otherwise would have been, but she didn’t need a lecture about it!
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. Then counted to ten again. By the fourth repetition she felt calm enough to talk rationally with her father, and opened her eyes. Climbing out of bed, she reached for the red kimono she kept on hand to wear in private and put it on, feeling the need for the mental barrier it provided. After tying the sash in a loose knot to keep the garment from falling open she looked at her father evenly.
“I’m sorry I upset you Papa, and I apologize for getting carried away.” She said in a tone that indicated how she was keeping a foot on her temper rather than letting loose like she wanted to. “Eddie’s a strong buck, he’ll be up and about soon enough, I’m sure of it.” That was more a prayer than a firm belief and they both knew it, but she plowed on. “You know how difficult it is for me to have a regular schedule. I do try, but I have to constantly plan with one eye on my reputation.”
If Eddie was down for as long as her father made it seem then she was going to need to find another meal in a few days and that was not going to be an easy task.
He could see the flashing in her eyes and the high color in her cheeks, and knew it’d cost her a bit of her pride to apologize to him, something that mollified him somewhat. He sat again as she spoke, nodding at the apology.
“I can appreciate that you have a difficult time of it,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Certainly more difficult than I did when I was your age.”
“With that in mind, what do you propose we might do to help matters?” He asked, resting his hands on his knees. “If you need it, I might be able to arrange for some additional discrete partners -- perhaps some who’d be able to provide more nourishment than a human can give you.” He mused for a moment, making a thoughtful sound as he crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair. “Might be good for you to think about branching out in general,” he added. “You’ve never been with a vampire, or one of ours before, have you? It’s worth exploring, just to get to know yourself a little better.”
The idea of becoming even more dependent on her father had a sour taste to it and Leah frowned almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth. At the same time she was extremely inexperienced when it came to the supernatural world. She knew about vampires, werewolves and the like, she’d even met some at events she’d attended with her father in the past. But she’d been so busy with her studies and keeping a social schedule expected of someone of her station she hadn’t had much time for exploring on her own.
Not that she really could do much exploring on her own, given the need to maintain her reputation...
The need to maintain her reputation...hmm...
“What if,” she began, hesitantly, sounding it out, then stopped and started again, this time in a rush. “What if I wasn’t me. What if I was someone else who didn’t have to worry about Lady Leah’s reputation?”
Gabriel could see the wheels turning as his daughter thought aloud -- despite the fact that she was young -- there were times he had to remind himself just how young she was, how much further she had to go in the grand scheme of things -- she was driven and bright, something he’d always appreciated and fostered (despite the occasional tutting and sideways comments about his being too permissive, treating her more like a son than a daughter, that her studies weren’t ladylike enough, and her talents and skills would be better applied to more feminine pursuits).
“An alternative identity,” he replied, leaning back in his chair further, the tension in his shoulders relaxing. “What did you have in mind?” He asked.
“I’m not sure yet.” Leah replied honestly, her own irritation and anger fading as she focused on the root cause of the problem. She was still working it out in her head.
“I appreciate your offer to find me partners, papa, but I think that’s too dangerous. Too dangerous for Lady Leah, anyway. And I’m going to live for eight hundred years, assuming I get to die an old woman in my bed. I need to make connections, learn about our world without you looking over my shoulder.” She smiled to try and take any sting out of the words, they weren’t met as a criticism.
“I need to find a way to have a different identity, one not associated with us.” The more she thought about it, the more she liked it, and the more daunting the task was going to be. Every time she opened her mouth she gave away her social standing, it was going to take a lot of work.
“It still leaves the problem of finding a safe place to feed without worrying about killing some poor manservant, but that’s easier as someone else. As...” she pondered for a moment. “As Vickie Smith!” Take the diminutive version of her middle name and the most common surname in the country and put them together for the identity of someone decidedly ‘not her’. Even if it was.
“We’ve talked before about Miss Lydia’s,” Gabriel replied, rolling the idea around in his head. “Might that fit the bill?” Leah’d never been there in person, and he’d made a considerable effort to keep his own association with the establishment (and the establishment’s true nature) hidden from his human social circles -- while it was well known that gentlemen could (and did) frequent houses of ill repute, owning one was a different matter altogether.
A flare of outrage that he could even suggest that was Leah’s initial reaction, and she stomped on it, hard. He was trying to help, and the idea wasn’t insane when put together with her new idea. It was impossible for Lady Leah Allen to step foot anywhere near Miss Lydia’s, let alone become part of her stable. But what about Vickie Smith?
She pondered the idea in silence for a little while, turning it over in her head.
“It could work.” Leah told her father, not quite sure if she liked the idea or not. The ring he’d gifted her with after that first feeding prevented her falling pregnant or contracting some sexual disease, and there wasn’t anything particularly unique looking about it that anyone would recognize if they saw her on the street as Vickie. So she didn’t have to worry about that, unlike human girls.
It was just the idea of being a prostitute that rankled. But why should it? After her first feeding she’d come to the conclusion that she liked sex, liked it a great deal in fact. It was only her social status that prevented her from having as many partners as she might want, and she could use some variety in her diet.
And it would expose her to a wider world and she knew she needed that, nervous as it made her.
“How would we explain me being gone if people inquire?”
Gabriel shrugged. “Volunteer work at a hospital for the poor?” He said, with a cheeky grin. “I’d make sure we were still seen enough to keep up appearances. Mercy knows, if I don’t at least pretend to be looking for a viable suitor for you, I’ll hear no end of it. But this? Has some real potential. ...It’d give you a bit more independence,” he mused, “and you’d have a great deal of control over your hours and who you chose to take as a partner, of course.”
His grin deepened, teasing her a little. “And the extra income couldn’t hurt either -- income that’d be entirely yours. I won’t even take the usual house cut.”
Leah pondered a moment, then shook her head. “No, you will take the usual house cut. Why would Vickie Smith get special treatment? She has to be just another one of the girls in Miss Lydia’s stable. No favoritism to get tongues wagging.” Nothing that would make people question who Vickie was and why she was special.
He laughed. “That’s fine by me,” he replied. “After all, you’ll get a share of it back eventually, with interest.” He leaned forward. “So. Worth giving a try? We might fetch you some new clothes before taking you around and making introductions, see whether it takes or not, but it’s a start.”
“Definitely some new clothes.” She winced a little at the thought, but in all honesty some of the dresses the lower classes wore actually looked simpler to get in and out of and not nearly as restrictive as the high fashion most of the ladies of her set wore. Vickie Smith wouldn’t dream of being able to afford such things. “Perhaps I could try and fit into one of the dresses Molly left behind.” Naming a servant girl who’d left in a hurry to marry a few weeks back after falling pregnant by the local blacksmith’s son. “She wasn’t as curved as I am, but we’re the same height. I can alter it enough to make due for one or two trips to a seamstress for proper clothes.” Left unsaid was she was trying to make certain no one had an inkling that Vickie might not be who she appeared, not even a random seamstress.
“But yes, we’ll try it. You’re right that the current arrangement isn’t working.”
“Good,” Gabriel replied, getting up from his chair. “I’m glad we’re in agreement.” He made his way over to the door before remembering the frustrations of the morning, and pausing, looked over at her mildly. “The grey needs to be curried, the stalls need freshening, and the carriage needs to be put away. I’ll see to Eddie, and will have a replacement for tomorrow, but you need to sort out the rest of his duties for today. I don’t care if you hire someone off the street, or do it yourself, but it needs taking care of, and it needs to be done properly.”